A Big Thank You

Multnomah Falls on the Columbia River Gorge scenic byway. The waterfall is 620 feet tall and is the second tallest year-round waterfall in the US.

A burned tree that continues to live in the Olympic National Park. The outside and top continue to grow.

I need to thank several people who helped make the cross-country trip a success:

My sister Alyce loaned us her GPS. TomTom was fantastic, although she did encourage me to turn into a wheat field in the middle of Washington state. I had deviated from her prescribed course and when I didn't follow the "Turn around when possible command" I guess she decided to send me off course. I stayed on the road, and Olivia and I made it to Lowell, Idaho anyway. We really benefited from having Tom Tom, and I really appreciate Alyce's generosity!

To the Ruane family in Colorado Springs: Thanks a million. The Ruanes were so generous to open their homes and act as tour guides during our stay in Colorado Springs. The Ruane girls were gracious and kind hosts to Olivia, and they all became fast friends. The food was great, as was the hospitality. We hope to return the favor when the Ruanes visit North Carolina or South Carolina.

To Sonya Summerfield, Brent's sister: Thanks for hanging out with Olivia and me while Brent was on the river. I don't know if I would have had the courage to travel with Olivia to Portland and Seattle by myself. Sonya made the trip to Portland and Seattle possible (in so many ways), and I really appreciate her kindness, patience and generosity.

For Debbie and Jim: Thanks for making Brent's Selway trip a huge success. Without Debbie and Jim's help, the trip would not have happened at all! Debbie and Jim also let us stay in their home, although we were a bit in the way and disrupted their home makeover! The food and hospitality were excellent. Olivia fell in love with Tater and Tot. We hope to repay their generosity when they visit the Carolinas.

Thanks to everyone who went on the Selway trip--Brent says it was the best group ever!

Thanks to everyone who followed our adventure and prayed for us along the way. We had no injuries, illnesses or problems of any kind.

Here's a short video of a geyser in Yellowstone. I was going to post more videos, but it takes too long for them to load. I'll try to post some on You Tube. If I do, I'll send an email so you can take a look at Old Faithful and some fumeroles and mud pots in Yellowstone.

The End

Mt. Rushmore. Ninety percent of the statues were "carved" using dynamite. I always pictured the sculptor hanging from a Bosun chair chiseling away at the rock. The team was so good with the dynamite that they could get within inches of the actual facial feature that they wanted to carve. Over 450,000 tons of rock were removed from the mountain. Most of that was removed so the workers could get to granite that was solid enough to carve. The granite erodes at a rate of 1 inch every 10,000 years (I'm not sure how they know that). About 400 men worked on the sculptures. No one died during the process. However, Borglum (the person commissioned to create the sculptures) died before everything was finished. His son completed the work that was left. Borglum is also the sculptor of Stone Mountain in Georgia.

Two young bull moose that were seen wandering around a state maintenance garage in Idaho or Montana. (I can't remember if we had crossed the state line yet).

Brent (second from right) and the river crew!

Olivia and Tot (his brother's name is Tater) play in the water at the take out for the Selway. The water is snow melt, but she is not one to be deterred. The swimming hole was beautiful, but I am a big chicken and did not go in!

Crescent Lake at Olympic National Park

Wildflower at Olympic

Olivia in an old growth forest. Hiking through the forest was one of the best hikes of the trip. The trees are old (some hundreds of years old) and huge. Old trees that fall become nurse trees for seedlings. The seedlings grow on top of the downed tree or a tree stump. The nurse tree provides nutrients for the growing tree so it doesn't have to compete with other growth on the forest floor. This area was used for logging a hundred years ago and the evidence of logging is still around in huge stumps and trees that were felled but never removed. Olivia thinks it would be a great place for a haunted trail!

Olympic National Park

Olympic National Park

We are finally getting back to normal. My friend Sara was here from Florida when we arrived Sunday. She's back home now, all the laundry is done, and we're getting back to our normal routine. School will start back soon and summer vacation will be over once again. This trip, however, will not soon be forgotten. We were gone 24 days and logged over 7,500 miles in the car. Brent spent 5 days on the Selway River. We visited ten parks (Olivia earned Junior Ranger badges at all of them): Olympic National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Arches National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (St. Louis Arch), Canyonlands National Park, Mammoth Cave National Park, Mount Rushmore National Memorial and Selway-Bitterroot Forest Service Wilderness. We drove through 19 states on Interstates, scenic by-ways and long, lonely stretches of two-lane roads. Eastern Washington has more wheat than I ever care to see again. Montana and Wyoming have pasture land that never seems to end. We crossed the Columbia River, Snake River, Green River, Colorado River, Mississippi River, Missouri River, Ohio River, Selway River, Lochsa River, and Wabash River. We stayed in campgrounds, hotels, motels and cabins. The last two nights, we slept in the car (of course only Brent or I slept at a time while the other one drove). Our costs averaged $105 a day. We ate a lot of meals out of the cooler, but we did eat out some. We enjoyed several local restaurants and a few national and local chains. Two of the best restaurants are Arthur Bryant's in St. Louis and Serious Pie (pizza pie, that is) in Seattle. I have a few pictures that need to be edited. I'll complete those when we get back to SC.

We are home. I'll try to remember everything that happened since the last post. Speaking of the last post, There is at least one typographical error. We stayed at the Westin (not Westing) in Portland and Seattle.

Anyway, Olivia and I dropped Sonya at the airport in Seattle around 10:30 Wednesday morning. From there, we drove all the way across Washington to Lowell, Idaho. Thursday morning, we went to the take out for the Selway river and met Brent. He said they had a great trip--the best one yet. It took until about 3:00 to get all their gear loaded. We left Lowell, Idaho and headed for Butte, Montana. We spent the night in a historical motel (built in the 1950s) and then headed for Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota. It was one of the longest days we've had. There was road construction on every road we took. We finally made it to Mt. Rushmore around 7:00. The monument is really impressive. I thought there would just be a turn off on the road with a spot to stop and view the mountain. However, there is an entire commercialized center built at the mountain. There was a $10 charge to park. The entry to the monument is down the Avenue of Flags which has flags representing each state. There were several cafes and gift shops, a museum and visitors' center. We were there just long enough for Olivia to earn a Junior Ranger badge. We left Mt. Rushmore and headed back to Rapid City to eat supper. We finished supper around 10:00, got int he car and drove all night. Brent drove until about 3 AM and then I drove until 9 AM. We stopped for breakfast and planned to drive to Nashville and spend the night, but the closer we got to Nashville, the closer we were to home, so we decided to drive all night once again. We arrived about 2:30 AM and are now in the process of cleaning about 4 million bugs off the front of the car and unloading/unpacking all our stuff. I'm going to take a nap. I'll post pictures later.

Washington State

We are in the Middle of Nowhere, Idaho. The connection here is iffy, so I'll post a few pictures now and try to post a few more later. At least the Internet is free. We stayed at the Westing in Portland and Seattle and the Internet was not free.

Orchids from the rain forest at the Seattle Zoo.

The town of F0rks has really capitalized on the fame of the Twilight series. The T-shirt pictured here says, "Rain, rain, go away. I want Edward to sparkle today." The sign advertises a look-alike contest. Almost every shop had an advertisement for Twilight merchandise. The chamber of commerce even publishes a Twilight tour map!

Setting for the Twilight series. The town is located on the Olympic peninsula. It is supposed to be the wettest place on Earth. It had been sunny all day, but as we approached Forks, it became very cloudy and the sky was cloudy while we were there, but the rest of the peninsula was sunny. We had to take the ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island, then we drove around Olympic National Park (I'll post pictures later). Forks is not in the park, but is on Highway 101 which circles the peninsula, so we decided to go. It is quite remote; and very gray and dreary. The perfect place for vampires.

Picture from Pike Place Market.

Pike Place Market is a Seattle landmark. This is where they throw the fish. We got to see a few fish being tossed. The food is incredible: tons of fresh sea food, fruits and vegetables. We bought cherries, peaches and nectarines (and a couple of pastries). Everything was great!

The Grand Tetons.

Buffalo herd in Yellowstone.

View of Columbia River Gorge as seen from the Vista House on the Columbia River Gorge Scenic Highway.

Olivia pretends to be a chimp at the Chimpanzee Challenge at the Portland Zoo.

Baby Sam at the Portland Zoo.

Portland was fun. Olivia and I went to the zoo, then Sonya, Olivia and I walked around the Pearl District. We ate at By Ways Cafe; the food was very good. Then we went to Powell's Books, a Portland landmark. The bookstore covers an entire city block. It is organized by different colored rooms. We headed to the rose room to browse the children's books. Then we we stopped by a gelatto shop and had a little Italian ice cream. It was delicious! Here are a few pictures from our recent travels.

We are staying at a nice hotel in downtown, but the wi-fi is not free. What's funny is that we stayed in a cheap hotel in Kansas City and the Internet was free and so was breakfast. Here, the Internet cost $12.95 for 24 hours and there is no free breakfast. That just doesn't make sense.

We took a detour yesterday and drove on the scenic highway that goes past several waterfalls that are created by snow melt from Mt. Hood. The waterfalls were beautiful. The tallest one is over 540 feet.

Brent is scheduled to get on the river today. I hope they have fun!

I have really enjoyed watching the changing landscape as we've crossed the country. We've seen a lot of it from the highway, but we've also spent a lot of time exploring other areas. All the parks have been great. When I helped Olivia write postcards, she came up with a poem that has become the slogan for our trip.

We've seen a lot;
It's all been fun.
We're not done yet;
There's more to come.

July 10

Brent should be at the Selway camping tonight. Sonya, Olivia and I spent the night in Boise and we are now in Portland. We drove through the Columbia River Gorge and had views of Mt. Hood from the highway. Sonya has done a lot of the driving even though she only drives about once a year. She did great! I'm going to have to make short posts because I keep getting bumped off the Internet.

More pictures from Yellowstone and Grand Teton

This is the original entrance to the park at Mammoth Hot Springs. When the park was created in 1872, it was the only park of its kind in the world. However, things weren't going well. There was a lot of poaching and vandalism in the park, so the cavalry was called in to keep order. People visiting the park would arrive at Mammoth and take a five day tour of the park on what was called the grand loop, the figure eight road that encompasses the park. After several years, the park service was created and park rangers took over from the cavalry. There are lots of original buildings in Mammoth. The original jail (although it wasn't called that), officers' quarters and barracks for enlisted men are still in use. The recreation center is now a credit union.

A herd of elk with several cows and calves and one juvenile bull showed up to graze near the visitors' center at Mammoth Hot Springs. They have to keep all the flowers and trees surrounded by fencing to keep the elk from eating them.

Mammoth Hot Springs

This is from Mammoth Hot Springs. It is different from the Old Faithful area. The springs here create travertine steps from the minerals in the water that is constantly flowing. There is a 2 mile boardwalk around the hot springs, and there are signs everywhere cautioning people to stay on the boardwalks because the ground is thin in places. However, there are pictures all around the park from the late 1800's that show people looking into the mouths of geysers and sitting on some of the travertine steps.

Olivia got tired of walking so I carried her some. We would pull off the road to see some geysers and she would say, "Not more geysers. We keep finding them and they keep finding us."

The black spot in this picture is a black bear. He was moving pretty quickly up the side of a mountain. Brent snapped this from the safety of the car.

Another grizzly bear. This one was in Yellowstone. The other one was spotted in Grand Teton.

Yellowstone National Park.

Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. They estimate that it only took days for the Yellowstone River to form the canyon.

A bubbling mud pot. They are called paint pots, and a picture really doesn't do justice to the pots. They are noisy and smelly!

Upper Falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

Yellowstone is home to the last free-roaming bison herd in the world. During our trip, at least one person was gored by an angry bison.

A hot spring in Yellowstone. The white and orange colors are from bacteria and algae that live around the spring. You can see the water bubbling on top.

Here are some more pictures from our travels.

Castle Geyser

Old Faithful erupts now about every 90 minutes. We saw it erupt twice.

Grizzly bear. The hump at the base of the neck is an indicator that the bear is a grizzly and not a black bear since black bears and grizzlies can be any color.

Moose cow and calf.

Finally, we are back among the living (tecnologically speaking). I have a lot to catch up on since I've been without Internet access for a while. When we left Moab, we drove to Salt Lake City to pick up Brent's sister Sonya. From there, we drove to Idaho Falls to drop off some of Brent's river gear. His friends Debbie and Jim let us stay with them. Olivia loved it because they have two rat terriers (Tater and Tot), and they loved Olivia, especially Tot. We got up early to head for the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. Here are some pictures from those two places. Yellowstone is such a special (and sometimes stinky) place. Almost everywhere you look, there are geysers, steam vents, mud pots, or animals. We saw elk, bison, pronghorn antelope, a moose and calf, a wolf, a fox, a coyote, a grizzly bear and a black bear. We also saw osprey (a couple with fish in their talons) and pelicans. If you look at a map of Yellowston, you'll notice that the main road makes a figure 8. We stayed at Old Faithful, Canyon, Mammoth Hot Springs and Grant Village, covering the entire park and making the figure 8 loop. I have lots more to share, especially pictures, but I'm really tired. We'll be in Portland tomorrow, if all goes as planned. I'll try to download more pictures from Yellowstone then.

Castle Rock, Rocky Mountain & Moab

Mesa Arch in Canyonlands.

This is the canyon formed by the Green River in Canyonlands National Park.

We hiked in this area called the Fiery Furnace. It contains a maze of spires and fins. There is no map; you have to try to remember your way out. Fortunately for us, someone had left a trail of sunflower seed hulls that we could follow. Of course, that is against park rules, but it helped us.

This is where Wall Arch used to be. The entire arch collasped last August.

Landscape Arch. Part of it fell in 1991.

Delicate Arch, the unofficial symbol of Utah.

This is our campsite in Rocky Mountain. Those elk tried to eat everything.

Mountains with a lake in the alpine tundra in Rocky Mountain. The elevation here is about 13,000.

Here are some pictures from our travels through Castle Rock en route to Rocky Mountain and from there to Moab, Utah. Also, there is a short video of Olivia describing some poop we found and which animal it came from. Jim and Nan bought Olivia a book called Who Pooped in the Park and Olivia uses it for identification. There are two other videos, but one is enough! I've included pictures from Arches and Canyonlands Parks. Both parks were beautiful, but Arches is amazing. We got really lucky. The day we arrived in Moab, the temp was 100 degrees. However, a cold front moved in overnight and the high the next day was only 84 degrees. In Rocky Mountain, the high was probably 65. The overnight lows were in the 40's.

We are in Utah and I have a lot to tell. We left the Ruane's Monday morning after a great breakfast of French toast. We drove to Castle Rock to visit my cousing Rebecca and her family. We hiked to Devil's Head in Pike National Forest. At the top of Devil's Head is the last fire watch tower in the forest. The view from the watch tower is fantastic. On our climb up the stairs, we were assaulted by a swam of lady bugs. I know we all think lady bugs are cute, but thousands of them at once is another story. I was so worried I would end of eating one. We left Pike National Forest and drove to a mall for lunch with Rebecca, Caroline and Reid. The mall just seemed the most convenient place since we were leaving Castle Rock for Rocky Mountain National Park. In the mall, there is a tribute to the lady who wrote American the Beautiful because the song was inspired by the view from Pike's Peak. After lunch, we had to get on the road. Olivia cried a lot. She wanted to spend more time with her cousin, Caroline. She told me that she had not been able to hold hands as much as she had wanted to. The drive to Rocky Mountain took us through Denver and the resort town of Estes Park. We camped in the Moraine campground. We had a view of Long's Peak, the highest point in the park at over 14,000 feet. We attended a ranger program that night where we learned all about the weasel family. The program was funny and educational. We watched a herd of elk nearby. When we awoke in the morning, it was about 50 degrees. We left Moraine and went on a ranger led hike to Bear Lake, Nymph Lake and Dream Lake. Along the way, we had excellent views of many famous peaks, including the scene on the back of the Colorado state quarter. We had to walk through a good bit of unmelted snow. Olivia engaged a man on our tour in a snowball fight. He seemed to enjoy it. On the hike we learned about the pine beetle infestation that is destroying trees in the park and the surrounding area. Olivia earned another Junior Ranger badge. After the hike we started driving along Trail Ridge Road. This road is the highest continuous paved road in the US. It goes from one side of the park to the other. We were driving from east to west. The views from the road are spectacular: glaciers, lakes, snow covered mountains, elk herds. We stopped to take what should have been an easy stroll to a look out point. We were at about 14,000 feet. At that elevation, only about 59% of the oxygen we are accustomed to at sea level is available. I really could feel the effects of the thin air. My head hurt and I was breathing heavily. Olivia, on the other hand, is singing, doing cheers, running, skipping and so on. She kept asking me to tell her things, and I would say that I was saving my breath for breathing. We wanted to camp on the west side of the park, but the campgrounds on that side are first come first served (no reservations). We drove to Timber Creek Campground and found one site available. Most of the campground was closed because of tree removal due to the pine beetle infestation. We took a guided tour of an old dude ranch (now closed). While there, a moose came right through the property. They are really big! After the tour, we let Olivia dip her (smelly) feet in the headwaters of the Colorado River. After supper, she told Brent and me that she wanted to put her whole body in the river. We went back to the campground and walked to the river at the campground. Along the trail, we surprised an elk eating her supper. We let Oliva skinny dip in the Colorado that ran through the campground. It was so cold that she really only got her feet wet there, too. After the skinny dip, we got cleaned up and headed for bed. When we awakened this morning, there were about seven elk going from campsite to campsite eating whatever they could find, including things that are truly inedible. We filled our water bottles here, but the water tasted as if it had been run through a pencil shaprpener. There was a distinct "taste" of pencil shavings. We headed for Utah around 7:00 this morning. Olivia and Brent are enjoying the pool at the campground, and I am doing some laundry.